The Role of Marketing in Business - Easy Jet Case Study

This report explores the role of marketing in business through a case study of Easy Jet. It includes a SWOT analysis, statement of objectives, marketing strategy, plan implementation, market research, key performance indicators, and more.

THE ROLE OF
MARKETING IN
BUSINESS

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis-...........................................................................................................................3
Statement of objective for marketing-.........................................................................................4
Strategy to approach the market-.................................................................................................5
Plan implementation-...................................................................................................................6
Method of market research-.........................................................................................................7
Key performance indicators-........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is a term used to refer to all the activities that a business enterprise undertakes
in order to promote the sales of the products or services offered by it. The role of marketing is
very crucial for an organization. Through effective marketing a business entity aims to boost its
sales by creating revenue options and building the reputation in the market (Chernev, 2020)
Easy Jet is a British origin MNC dealing in the low cost airline business having its
headquarters in London. This report will develop a marketing plan for the Easy Jet services. In
the report the organization will be analysed using the SWOT analysis framework. A strategy will
be proposed in the report using marketing mix. Lastly in this report steps to implement the plan
and the indicators for measuring the effectiveness of the plan will be highlighted.
MAIN BODY
SWOT analysis-
SWOT analysis is the framework used for analysing the internal strengths and
weaknesses of the organization along with its external opportunities and threats.
Strengths: Pricing: The main strength of the Easy Jet is its pricing structure. The average fares of
the company are about fifty percent lower than the average cost of tickets by its
competitive airlines. Company’s revenue management system is dynamic and adjusts the
fare price in accordance to the demand levels. This ensures maximum revenue being
earned by the company (SWOT Analysis of Easy Jet – Easy Jet SWOT Analysis, 2022).
 Financial Performance: Over the years the financial performance of the company has
improved. The company holds a strong balance sheet.
Weaknesses: Seasonality of earnings: The earnings of the company are highly seasonal. The profit
depends largely on the period ranging between April to Sept. During the months of
winter company experience loses.
 Competition: The company faces huge competition from its competitor Ryanair. Due to
lack of innovations, it becomes highly difficult for the company to differentiate itself in
the market.

Opportunities: Easy Jet academy: The airline can potentially use easy jet academy as an additional
source for generation of extra income.
 Market Growth: The company have high potential to increase its market share with future
expansion through exploring new routes in Europe. Increasing the number of airports and
runways in United Kingdom and Europe will increase the market share for the airline.
Further number of flights can be increased at competitive fares.
Threats: Labour Unrest: Airline is one of the most labour-intensive industry making Easy Jet
vulnerable to unrest among labour. The airline is exposed to threat of labour unrest both
by its own staff members and also airport based suppliers. Increasing Complexities: With the growth of the business the airline has made its
business model more complex especially with the introduction of unbundled pricing.
 Changing policies of the government: The change in the policies by the government on
timely basis imposes threat on the airline in the form of strict regulations. Strict aviation
regulations can negatively impact the revenue of Easy Jet.
Statement of objective for marketing-
Statement of objective refers to the agenda which is being followed in order to carry out
marketing plan successfully. With this regard here SMART model is being followed (Sahir and
Rosmawati, 2020)
Specific- The main aim of the marketing plan is to hike the number of people who are visiting
the entity for buying its services.
Measurable- For measuring the success of plan some KPIs (Key performance indicators) will be
used.
Attainable- The aim is attainable, as it has been articulated that the selling is getting down so for
this purpose surging number of visitors to the website or offline office of the entity is needed.
Relevant- The objective is aligning with the objective of the organization, it is suffering due to
lower sales of services, with this marketing plan the need can be satisfied.
Time based- The marketing plan will be for just one year. Then on the basis of the outcomes it
would be revised and sort of needed changes are to be inculcated.

Marketing goals are needed to be broader so can meet the organizational requirements, here it is
essential to measure their feasibility, costliness, and affectivity to meet certain need of the
company (Haapasola, 2022)
Strategy to approach the market-
With this regard for EasyJet company Marketing mix model is being used in order to
know various aspects which are having potential to affect the ability to make profits in the
market for the organization. Here in the report all seven dimension of marketing mix are being
articulated as below-
Products- EasyJet is one of the jet related service provider which extends small flight services.
There are a range of services such as return tickets, one way, holiday offers, business journey etc.
are being offered by it.
Pricing- The pricing strategy of the entity is based on “Low cost model” where it offers services
on cheaper cost to its customers. It has been in top tow the cheapest airline service providers in
the world and cheapest in the entire Europe.
Place- as it is known that the organization is widely operating its business and at preset covering
30 countries and around 1000 routes. Headquarter of the entity is in Luton UK. GDS (global
distribution system) is also being practised by the entity in order to widen its grasp over the
market (Kikundi, et al. 2022)
Promotion- The organization is having its multiple channels to expand marketing diaspora, with
this regard, the using TV advertisement so can remind offers to potential customers. Having
around 1.8 million Facebook followers, and 380 thousand followers on Instagram.
For better promotion of services sort of plans such as special discount plan, voucher of 10% are
being key attraction of the promotion.
People- at present around 15000 people are employed inn the entity, with some key position
holders such as managing directors and CEO. It has been severely affected due to hit of
pandemic and in the year 2020 announced cutting up to 30% of its existing jobs in the market.
The entity is serving across 30 nations so having a huge constellation of people with it (Kinlen,
and Golding, 2021)
Process- it has installed a well-structured process. For instance online check in service is the way
to make checking process handy. At the same time passengers are given ease to go through their
check in 30 days. So the process is very attractive in the entity.

Physical evidence- The website of EasyJet is very attractive and simple to use. Which attracts
customers and any random visitors too. At the same time crafts are well maintained, look nice,
the colour and logo are also attention snatching, it is reported by some customers about poor
cleaning of jets yet it is satisfactory (Timóteo, 2021)
So from the above analysis it can be concluded that the entity is having need to go with
“Advertisement marketing strategy” since the strategy paves way to get more customers aware of
the plan. Here different channels may be used such as TV, social media, micro-blogging cites
etc.
Plan implementation-
To implement the marketing plan of the organization these steps will be taken-
Marketing goals- As above objective statements has been prepared so the marketing goals are
decided. The marketing plan must be totally based to fulfil the objectives. As CEO of the entity
has shown its concern about slow pace of sales of the organizational services. So the main
objective would be to give a surge to the pace of services (Rodrigues and Rocha, 2019)
Market research- With this respect, SWOT tool was applied where different internal and
external aspects which were affecting the performance of EasyJet company were evaluated. For
this purpose survey method is one of the most suitable.
Target Audience- In our marketing plan the main aspect is the target audience, here people of
around 30 nations where the entity is operating its business would be targeted and mainly those
people who are having such need of short haul flight services to fulfil their requirements. There
are a range of such customers who plan to get such services but due to improper knowledge they
postpone or reject their plan.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI)- at one when the marketing strategy or plan would be
applied then it is essential to measure its progress in order to make essential changes. Such KPI
are to be used such as- Customer acquisition cost, Digital marketing ROI, Lead to customer ratio,
customer retention ratio, page conversation rate, social media traffic for the entity, mobile traffic,
conversion rate of customer, customer lifetime value etc.
Marketing team- a marketing team has to be formed, where marketing manager, deputy
manager, remaining team members, data annalist team etc. would be participating. The team will
timely prepare its report and extend that to the higher authority in order to transmit
recommendations.

Marketing budget- For EasyJet the marketing budget has to be prepared where the cost to
promote services are to be decided. All key components for instance- on TV, on Mobile
applications, some micro-blogging site etc., and what cost they will revert is decided at this
stage.
Put on action- Now the plan will be implemented as above decided, all key participants would
be guided as planned, and timely retain key data of performance on the basis of KPI. Here some
actions are to be taken such as hiring marketing agencies or some agents, order them to execute
marketing plan, building workflow, making timely inspections etc. (Ponomarev, 2020)
Review of strategy- At once when the plan is being implemented then it is essential to know is
there any deviation or not. If there is any form of deviation then will take immediate actions. On
the other hands it is also needed to be ensured that the plan must bring results as intended. The
review is conducted by top marketing management team so can guide their efforts in right
direction.
Method of market research-
To aid the marketing plan a market research was executed, for this purpose, some
methods are intended to be used. The organization is striving to get bigger market share and at
least to attract customers whose number is declining form so long.
Here methods such as survey and study of focus group are essential. Since the business
is working in a very hectic environment where a range of such entities are working so to know
more about effectiveness of its marketing plan and sort of market trends, there is need to use
survey method (Thabit and Raewf, 2018)
It is not only appropriate to fulfil objectives but also economic too. It is not possible to
conduct interview and some other things, cause the market size is very wide and with the
progress of time technological up-gradation are offering super scope of using survey method.
At the same time study of focus group is another very suitable market research method.
The target market of focus group of the service are those people who keep taking such jet
services form any organization or service providers. The main purpose behind such tools of
market research to assist the process of marketing plan and also eradicating those bottlenecks
which affect its successfulness.
For the study of focus group some actions are to be taken in order to make it successful
and aligning with the marketing plan. Firstly the focus group has to be clearly drafted in order to

make it measurable, then tools or techniques which are to be used will be decided. Now a range
of such tools and applications are available to make the task simpler.
The final results of this quantitative research shall be evaluated to turn it into something
meaningful in order to improve marketing plan. This method is utterly justifiable because in the
market there is need to the organization to know exact position of its customers and why there is
downfall in its sales throughout the period.
Key performance indicators-
Just putting the marketing plan into action is not sufficient there is rigorous need to know
whether it is working or not. Or if it is working then to which extent, these all queries can be
resolved only by using Key Performance Indicators.
KPI are some measurement standards which are used to know exact position of the plan
and how it is working, these KPIs also help to decipher is there any need to make some changes
in both plan or implementation (Andika and Susanti, 2018)
Customer acquisition cost to the organization, Digital marketing rate of return, Lead to
customer ratio, customer retention rate, company online page conversation ratio, social media
traffic, mobile application traffic, customer rate of conversion, and overall value extended to the
customers are some most affective KPIs.
These all different KPIs has to be used in order to know effectiveness of the marketing
plan. The main aim of the marketing plan is to hike the number of customers of the organization
which is struggling form so long, specifically after hit of Covid-19 it is facing drastic topple in
term of customers and overall revenues too (Sheth, 2021)
As the marketing plan has been fabricated, where a some advertisements would be
displayed, it is completely relying on holistic approach where both conventional and non
conventional methods shall be taken into consideration.
Firstly customer acquisition cost is being seen where it would be evaluated that what cost
is being generated for acquisition of a customer, if the cost is higher it is indication that the
marketing plan is not working efficiently.
Digital marketing rate of return shows the return on the digital marketing expenditures.
Here it is significant for the marketing team to understand that the digital efforts must be guided
in right direction then only will inform exactly.

Lead to customer ratio and customer retention ratio are very helpful to know exactly how
the marketing efforts are going keeping long run perspective in mind. One of the most significant
aspect is customer retention rate which displays that what number of customers are being
retained by the entity if this figure is higher than marketing plan is performing good otherwise
there is rigorous need to go for making further action (Mahmoud, 2018)
Social media traffic and mobile application traffic are such KPIs which indicates that
how marketing is affecting in short run. If the traffic is very high then it can be concluded that in
the market the efforts are snatching attention of customers, and they are looking up the
information.
So all these KPIs can be used to measure successfulness of marketing plan.
CONCLUSION
From the report above it can be concluded that marketing is having its rigorous role in the
success of an organization. The report had developed a marketing plan for EasyJet company
which is engaged in the hospitality and tourism sector. With this regard various aspects such as
marketing audit, statement of objective, strategy to use marketing mix had taken into focus, at
the end of the report some ideas on marketing plan and their implementation was articulated in
order to carry out it successfully, along with some key performance indicators such as digital
cost of acquisition, customer retention rate, customer conversion rate etc., which were indicating
how effectually the plan was going and what some changes were required in order to make it
more efficient.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals-
Andika, A. and Susanti, F., 2018. Pengaruh marketing mix terhadap keputusan pembelian
parfum di Azzwars Parfum Lubeg Padang.
Chernev, A., 2020. The marketing plan handbook. Cerebellum Press.
Haapasola, A., 2022. Implementation of a Marketing Plan.
Kikundi, B. E., et al. 2022. A marketing plan for Kawempe Youth Centre Library (Doctoral
dissertation, Makerere University).
Kinlen, A. and Golding, D., 2021. You Can’t See It!–It’s Electr-onic! A Fictional Marketing
Plan for a Public Library’s Unseen Resource. The Serials Librarian, pp.1-10.
Mahmoud, T. O., 2018. Impact of green marketing mix on purchase intention. International
Journal of Advanced and applied sciences. 5(2). pp.127-135.
Ponomarev, D., 2020. Consolidation of airlines in Europe: potential acquisition of Norwegian by
EasyJet (Doctoral dissertation).
Rodrigues, M. and Rocha, V., 2019. Easyjet-airline: low cost carriers take over
Europe (Doctoral dissertation).
Sahir, S. H. and Rosmawati, R., 2020. Improve Marketing Mix for Marketing Plan Strategic in
Coffeeshop Business. Management Analysis Journal. 9(4). pp.459-466.
Sheth, J., 2021. New areas of research in marketing strategy, consumer behavior, and marketing
analytics: the future is bright. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice. 29(1). pp.3-12.
Thabit, T. and Raewf, M., 2018. The evaluation of marketing mix elements: A case
study. International Journal of Social Sciences & Educational Studies. 4(4).
Timóteo, 2021. Equity research-EasyJet Airline Company LTD (Doctoral dissertation, Instituto
Superior de Economia e Gestão).
Online
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